CSA Week 22, last Summer Share

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October 30, 2017
Week 22 of 22
October 30, November 1 and 3
FINAL EDITION

Dear friends,

Somehow another season has come and gone for the MHOF Summer CSA. It is clear that we are near the end when some of the bags seem to be disintegrating under the weight of produce (the Brussels sprouts did in more than 1 bag last week!) We have a new baby in our midst – yes, Maggie comes to work now with her ever patient and skillful mother, Clare. Brent has accomplished a complete year of recovery and goes for his license tomorrow and moves into his family home in West Springfield which he inherited from his grandfather. Mario, Luke, and Phil are back in school, Lindsay has left to seek her fortune and more experience on another organic farm in readiness to start her own farm in NH sometime in 2018, and Josh is homeschooling his last year in high school and will be with us at least through the end of the year, if not longer. Many thanks to Jack who made the big delivery to Worcester each week to WSU and also Living Earth. And to Julie Emmets who did the lion share of the deliveries on Wednesday and Friday.

I was not happy with quantity or quality in your bags in the first handful of weeks of the CSA – the weather was so cold and cloudy/rainy. As global warming trends us towards colder springs and longer falls we have to realign our farming practices to keep up. I do hope you enjoyed this long fall with many crops staying around longer than ever. We are learning to keep planting, much later than we used to, in late July, August and September, for the inevitable bounty into October and November. Next year we will more proactively work to plant perhaps a little later, keep things covered with row covers a little later and tend to our soil electrical conductivity. I learned from my ag consultant, son Dan, that some sea salt in solution and even a little sugar will keep the minerals functioning and the microbes fed so that they can support the necessary photosynthesis to get the plants growing and keep them growing.

Here is the line up for your last CSA share
o Leek
o Kale
o Lettuce
o Celery
o Cabbage/broccoli/cauliflower
o Potatoes
o Brussels sprouts
o Carrots
o Radish or turnip
o Dandelions
o Chinese cabbage or tatsoi
Evaluation
Please send your evaluation results of the CSA. What did you like, what didn’t you like, how was quality, how was quantity, service, news (I know I was short on being in touch this year – sorry), etc. Just send me a quick email to Julie@mhof.net with your thoughts.

Return your Bags
Be sure to return your bags to your CSA pick up spot. Some of them are end of life, but those that can be used for another year, we would appreciate back.

Fall CSA
Keep the good produce coming for one more month. Starting next Monday we will begin our late fall CSA with pick ups at Living Earth, Teresa’s garage in Holden and at the farm. You can sign up here – https://mhof.net/2017-csa-share-options/. Or you can just send a check for $120 for the CSA and $8 for delivery (for Worcester or Holden) sometime this week. Let me know if you are planning to join so I can be sure to have your bag ready for Monday.

Meat at MHOF
We did our last slaughter of chickens yesterday and we have a few more for sale at $6.50/lb. Enquire. And pork will be back from the slaughterhouse on November 17. And turkeys for Thanksgiving are available too. Check out the website for all of these products – https://mhof.net/organic-meat/.

Thanks for your patronage this year. We very much appreciate you.

Julie
For The Many Hands Organic Farm staff